Abilities
The Abilities Each ability partially describes your character and affects some of your character's actions. Strength Dexterity Constitution Intelligence Wisdom Charisma Your Ability Scores To create an ability score for your character, roll four six-sided dice (4d6). Disregard the lowest die and total the three highest dice. This roll gives you a number between 3 (horrible) and 18 (tremendous). The average ability score for the typical galactic citizen is 10 or 11, but your character is not typical. The most common ability scores for player characters (heroes) are 12 and 13. (The average hero is above average.) Make this roll six times, recording the result each time on a piece of paper. Once you have all six scores, assign each score to one of your six abilities. At this step, you need to know what kind of person your character is going to be, including his species and class, in order to know where best to place your character's ability scores. Remember that choosing a species other than Human causes some of these ability scores to change. Ability Modifiers Each ability, after changes made because of species, has a -5 to +5 modifier. The modifier is the number you add to or subtract from the die roll when your character tries to do something related to that ability. For instance, you add or subtract your Strength modifier to your roll when you try to hit someone with a vibroblade. You also apply the modifier to some numbers that aren't die rolls, such as when you add or subtract your Dexterity modifier to your Reflex Defense. A positive modifier is called a bonus and a negative modifier is called a penalty. Rerolling If your scores are too low, you may scrap them and reroll all six scores. Your scores are considered too low if your total modifiers (before changes according to species) are 0 or less, or if your highest score is 13 or lower. Planned Generation Instead of rolling dice, you may select the scores you want by using the planned character generation method. This requires a bit more thought and effort on your part, since you need to know what kind of character you want to play so you can select your scores appropriately. Determine your species and class beforehand, then select your scores as outlined below. Your character's ability scores all start at 8. You have 25 points to spend to increase these scores, using the costs shown below. After you select your scores, apply any species modifiers. Standard Score Package The third method of determining ability scores is the standard score package, a balanced mix of scores designed to quickly create hero characters. Assign the scores to the abilities as you like. After you assign your scores, apply species modifiers. The standard score package is: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8. Changing Ability Scores Over time, your character's ability scores can change. Ability scores can increase without limit. * At 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th, a heroic character increases two ability scores by 1 point each. * As a character ages, some ability scores go up and others go down. When an ability scores changes, all attributes associated with that score change accordingly. For example, when Sia-Lan becomes a 4th-evel Jedi, she increases her Dexterity from 15 to 16 and increases her Charisma from 13 to 14. Now she's harder to hit, better at using ranged weapons, and all of her Dexterity-based and Charisma-based skills improve as well.